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Laptop adaptor cord

17 years ago

My Gateway laptop is just a year old. I use the adaptor with it all the time (and it's on all the time). Do these cords go bad that quick? Where ever I plug it in, it's not charging - the pink charging light isn't coming on. Noticed this happening yesterday for the first time. Can't be the battery b/c I'm typing from the laptop now....it would not work if it was the battery. Though, the 2.5 hours charge the battery used to have is now down to 2 hours.

Geeze, nothing like having to replace this cord every year.

Thanks.

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Comments (6)

bpgreen
17 years ago
It's probably not the cord. Does the cord power it if it's plugged in? Can you take out the battery, plug it in and use it?

I would think a more likely suspect would be the charging unit in the laptop.
mikie_gw
17 years ago
They make the cord from the power adapter to the laptop out of something especially cheap on my Toshiba. I don't even think its real insulation meant for electrical ... the china guy making that wire certainly didn't make it to anything near an American specification and had not a clue that electricity was going to flow through that thing and that somebody might accidentally actually step on it.

Stepping on it sometimes can flatten the wires inside and short them out so easy.

I've worked on mine several times in 1.5 yrs. Flexing it this way and that along every inch of the cord where I might have stepped on, to squeeze the power out of it.
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debo_2006
Original Author
17 years ago
Yes, the power cord has the green light lit.

When I called Gateway, they had me take out the battery, press the power button for 30 sec, then start the computer without the battery in in. It started fine, then died. I tried it again, same thing.

He said it may be the internal power supply. I went out for several hours, came back, put the battery back in the computer, plugged in the adaptor cord, and all is working fine.

I'm afraid to move this thing in fear the charging light won't come on again. (I'm using the same outlet I tried early when it wouldn't work).

They told me it would be 10 days to get it back from repair. I just backed up my important files as this is my work computer.

I'm going to observe it to see if the charging light continues to stay on...I really don't want to send this in for repair unless I HAVE TO.
blabare
17 years ago
Yeah, it sounds like you are out of luck. Most likely the power supply connected to the motherboard. A local shop could prob fix for a couple bucks, but that would save you the time of sending it in.
genes
17 years ago
If you constantly are unpluging and pluging in the a/c adapter, the d/c jack in the back of the laptop may be loose too. You could try gently wiggling the adapter cord where it plugs into the laptop to see if the laptop's charging like goes on and off
debo_2006
Original Author
17 years ago
genes: Usually, I'm unplugging the adaptor from the wall, not the back of the computer. And when it wasn't holding the charge before, I tried wiggling it and the charging light flashed once or twice, then went off again.

So far, it's being charging just fine since the Gateway tech had be take the battery out and hold the power button for 30 seconds. It's holding the charge fine with the adaptor, and even when I unplugged the adaptor from the back of the puter, then plug back in, all works fine.

I'll be keeping my eyes on things. I'm hoping the battery re-set helped my initial issue.

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